Name Tv Shows With One-Word Titles For Essays

An Introduction

We use italics (characters set in type that slants to the right) and underlining to distinguish certain words from others within the text. These typographical devices mean the same thing; therefore, it would be unusual to use both within the same text and it would certainly be unwise to italicize an underlined word. As word-processors and printers become more sophisticated and their published products more professional looking, italics are accepted by more and more instructors. Still, some instructors insist on underlines (probably because they went to school when italics were either technically difficult or practically unreadable). It is still a good idea to ask your instructor before using italics. (The APA Publication Manual continues to insist on underlining.) In this section, we will use italics only, but they should be considered interchangeable with underlined text.

These rules and suggestions do not apply to newspaper writing, which has its own set of regulations in this matter.

Italics do not include punctuation marks (end marks or parentheses, for instance) next to the words being italicized unless those punctuation marks are meant to be considered as part of what is being italicized: "Have you read Stephen King's Pet Semetary? (The question mark is not italicize here.) Also, do not italicize the apostrophe-s which creates the possessive of a title: "What is the Courant 's position on this issue?" You'll have to watch your word-processor on this, as most word-processors will try to italicize the entire word that you double-click on.

Titles

Generally, we italicize the titles of things that can stand by themselves. Thus we differentiate between the titles of novels and journals, say, and the titles of poems, short stories, articles, and episodes (for television shows). The titles of these shorter pieces would be surrounded with double quotation marks.

In writing the titles of newspapers, do not italicize the word the, even when it is part of the title (the New York Times), and do not italicize the name of the city in which the newspaper is published unless that name is part of the title: the Hartford Courant, but the London Times.

Other titles that we would italicize include the following:

Journals and Magazines:Time, U.S. News and World Report, Crazyhorse, Georgia Review

Foreign Words or Phrases

If a word or phrase has become so widely used and understood that it has become part of the English language  such as the French "bon voyage" or the abbreviation for the latin et cetera, "etc."  we would not italicize it. Often this becomes a matter of private judgment and context. For instance, whether you italicize the Italian sotto voce depends largely on your audience and your subject matter.

Words as Words

Examples:

The word basically is often unnecessary and should be removed.

There were four and's and one therefore in that last sentence. (Notice that the apostrophe-s, used to create the plural of the word-as-word and, is not italicized. See the section on Plurals for additional help.)

She defines ambiguity in a positive way, as the ability of a word to mean more than one thing at the same time.

For Emphasis

Note: It is important not to overdo the use of italics to emphasize words. After a while, it loses its effect and the language starts to sound like something out of a comic book.

I really don't care what you think! (Notice that just about any word in that sentence could have been italicized, depending on how the person said the sentence.)

These rules do not apply to newspaper writing.

Words as Reproduced Sounds

Grrr! went the bear. (But you would say "the bear growled" because growled reports the nature of the sound but doesn't try to reproduce it. Thus the bees buzz but go bzzzz and dogs bark woof!)

His head hit the stairs, kathunk!

Frequently, mimetically produced sounds are also accompanied by exclamation marks.

Simply put: no.

APA's Publication Manual (2010) indicates that, in the body of your paper, you should use italics for the titles of:

books

periodicals (journals, magazines, newspapers)

films

videos

TV shows

Microfilm publications

Beyond APA's specific examples, know that certain types of titles are almost always written in italics.

Use italics in a word-processed document for the types of titles you'd underline if you were writing by hand. A general rule of thumb is that within the text of a paper, italicize the title of complete works but put quotation marks around titles of parts within a complete work.

The table below isn't comprehensive, but it's a good starting point

Titles in Italics

Titles Placed in "Quotation Marks"

Title of a periodical (magazine, journal, newspaper)

Title of article in a periodical

Title of a book

Title of a chapter in a book

Title of a movie or play

Name of an act or scene in a movie or a play

Title of a television or radio series

Title of an episode within a tv or radio series

Title of a musical album or CD

Title of a song

Title of a long poem

Title of a short poem

Names of operas or long musical composition

Names of paintings and sculptures

Title of a short story

On an APA-style reference page, the rules for titles are a little different. In short, a title you would italicize within the body of a paper will also be italicized on a reference page. However, a title you'd place in quotation marks within the body of the paper (such as the title of an article within a journal) will be written in normal lettering and will not be in quotation marks.

Here are some examples:

Smith (2001) research is fully described in the Journal of Higher Education.

Smith's (2001) article "College Admissions See Increase" was published in the Journal of Higher Education after his pivotal study on the admissions process.